


Unfurl

by evil_bunny_king



Series: Of the Sun [11]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Abora Lavellan, F/M, In the Fade, Sexual Tension, Sleepy Kisses, kisses all around, knowing kisses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-20
Updated: 2015-03-20
Packaged: 2018-03-18 18:50:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3580143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evil_bunny_king/pseuds/evil_bunny_king
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He huffed a laugh, his eyes bright as they met hers. They seemed almost grey in the half-light, smiling under lowered lashes, and she had to resist the urge to trace the crinkles in the corners, or nip at those full, gently smirking lips. The ass.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unfurl

_The evening air breathes and the young elf breathes with it, her stance firm and her short bow drawn, taught and trembling. She is twelve, and her red hair is still long enough to graze her shoulder blades, tumbling down from her hasty ponytail along her back. The strands float past her as she holds a nug in her sights. She can see it clearly- it's crouched in the gloam beneath an evergreen, snuffling amongst the roots. The crackle of dead leaves is loud in the quiet of the autumned forest. She could locate it with her eyes closed, she thinks. Dumb, stupid animal. She was going to kill it._

_A grimace of a smile slants the young girl's mouth and she lines up her shot, matching her breaths to the brush of the wind. Slowly in, slowly out. But her arm is beginning to shake with the strain, the bow unbending against her grip- and the arrow quivers as it releases, missing its mark by several feet and lodging itself in a tree. Again._

_There's a squeal as the nug bolts, its black hide soon disappearing into the shadows of the undergrowth. The elf stares after it, then at the arrow, before flinging her bow down in frustration. So gods damned stupid-_

A warm chuckle, and Abora felt Solas shift closer, his hands slipping more firmly around her waist and drawing her back against him. They were standing under the eaves of a leafless oak just metres away from the girl, watching her frustrated attempts to dislodge her arrow from the bark- watching a memory play itself out, her younger self completely unaware of her audience. Abora settled herself in Solas arms with a rueful smile, an embarrassed flush creeping up her neck despite herself. She should've guessed they'd eventually stumble across this memory.

'Hotblooded, wasn't I?' She covered his hands with hers, smoothing her thumbs over his wrists as she did so. He, this- it felt so... real. Yet she was watching a ghost of herself cement her long-lasting hatred of archery, in the arms of a man she'd met only six months ago.

Solas' response is pressed into the skin behind her ear, his breath ghosting down the side of her neck. 'Were, vhenan?

She opened her mouth to retort but then her younger self stomped away into the woods, red-faced and stony, her equipment strewn abandoned behind her. She felt Solas' lips curve into a smile at the sight and finds herself laughing as well, tucking herself closer into his embrace.

What a sterling example of the Lavellan temper.

' _Was_ hotblooded, yes,’ she defended nevertheless, ‘and in my defense, I did turn back before the camp to come and fetch all of this, if only because I couldn't bear leaving any evidence of my failed attempts behind me.' She wriggled around in his grasp until she could face him, hands settling on his hips. 'I hadn't exactly asked before 'borrowing' the bow, either.'

He huffed a laugh, his eyes bright as they met hers. They seemed almost grey in the half-light, smiling under lowered lashes, and she had to resist the urge to trace the crinkles in the corners, or nip at those full, gently smirking lips. The ass.

'An impulsive thief as well an infidel. It's a credit to lady Montilyet that the humans haven't lost their faith in their herald quite yet.'

She succumbed to temptation and leaned in to tug his lower lip between her teeth in a playful reprimand, murmuring her response against his lips. 'Impulsive infidel is it?'

His grip flexed and he dipped closer for a kiss, but she twisted her face away and leaned into his space instead, crowding in, making sure her words breathed across the shell of his ear.

'Impulsiveness is something you seem quite acquainted with, vhenan.' She delighted in the almost imperceptible shiver that she felt run through him as she spoke, her voice cast low and teasing. 'And you are certainly no Andrastian. What is that human phrase about glass houses and throwing stones?'

His arms tightened around her, keeping her flush against him, his chuckle grazing the cropped hair near her ear. 'Thief you don't deny.'

She shrugged and breathed a laugh. 'Well, I was a spy.'

He laughed again, the sound low and free, felt more than heard and when she swayed in his relaxing grip back to face him once more his features were open, happy. Her heart tripped at the sight, a smile tweaking her lips as she met his kiss halfway. These- these were the moments she cherished. It bothered her, sometimes, that it was only at times like this that he seemed to be this alive- that the burdens that seemed to weigh on him peeled away, sloughing away like a dead skin. She was quickly finding that there was little she wouldn’t do to help keep those demons away.

'I was similar, when I was young - impulsive, I mean,' he murmured once he drew away, releasing a hand to draw his thumb along the curve of her cheek, cutting as always across the swirl of her vallaslin. His eyes were warm, fixed on her own. 'Wayward, almost. I was so sure of myself. We are all brash and foolhardy in youth. It is only later that we realise that time, although limited, is not wholly out of our control.'

She shifted on her feet, cocking her head to the side. 'Not dreaming of following Alexius footsteps, are you?' she teased. 'Or are we just declaring all units of time relative now?'

Twilight was deepening over their stretch of forest, or the approximation of it – she could see their surroundings morphing in the corner of her eye with the changing light, trees sagging like molten glass. The muted green ambiance of the fade increasingly filtered through the moulting leaves, dappling the undergrowth in a mockery of moonlight. The edges of her younger self's remembered forest must be collapsing in her absence, she realised. She'd almost forgotten where they were. They would have to move on soon, lest they stayed long enough to watch Abora the younger's inglorious return. Gods forbid.

His laughter drew her back and he shook his head, cupping her cheek. 'Temporal relativity is exactly what I meant, as you well know. You have experience enough of its manipulation in your alchemical experiments.' He swiped his thumb at the edge of her mouth at her answering grin and a swathe of forest disintegrated behind him as if under a brushstroke, shreds of bark fluttering on an unfelt breeze. 'A mindfully laid plan may take time to come to fruition, but it can accomplish more than the scramble of spontaneous action. Likewise, a moment of intense focus can be fleeting, last only a breath, or it can /endure/, given the right... perspective.'

He trailed his gaze slowly across her features, his movement languid, but intent: the arch of her cheekbones, the bow of her lips, the light freckles bronzed into her skin. She felt her breathing hitch under its weight, skin tingling, flushing - a moment that stretched until he raised his gaze to hers once more, challenging her with a cocked eyebrow.

She tried to calm her racing pulse, acquiescing with a rueful twist of the lips.

Point proven.

'Mmm. Well.' She breathed, muscling her thoughts back into coherence. 'Then like all young things, you were cocky and hot-blooded in your youth as well. That's... interesting to imagine.'

Another smile; his fingers traced idly at her waist, teasingly light. The canopy above them had all but withered away by this point; she could see the leaves rolling to the ground around them, while acorns swelled and bloomed on the branch. 'A positive construction, I'd hope.

Her smile in response was genuine, games set aside, accompanied with another soft kiss that was willingly returned.

'Without a doubt.'

They remained in place for a while, simply enjoying each other’s presence, watching as the world contorted and transformed around them, the last vestiges of familiarity fading away. Eventually Abora sighed, a contented, happy sound, allowing herself to rest against his chest. It was probably time to move on.

She felt his thumb find the edge of her jaw and fall away, his breathing quiet and steady beneath her cheek. She looked up, curious, to catch an edge of something flickering across his features – that unspoken solemnity that occasionally stole over him in quiet moments, when the attentions of the others were directed elsewhere.

But as soon as it appeared the expression was gone. His eyes met hers once more, warm and dark, and then he was leaning forward, kissing her gently, deliberately, before she had the chance to speak. His touch was heated, insistent, hands smoothing a slow, firm path up her back. She felt herself melting into him despite herself, lips opening to the swipe of his tongue, breath stolen as he pressed himself closer.

Almost all thought drowned in the delicious rush of sensation: the warmth coiling at the pit of her stomach, the sensuous rub of tongues, his taste- drawing her into a tantalising maelstrom.

But she remembered.

She remembered an evening- a night following one of their many excursions to the Exalted Plains, when she'd collapsed exhausted but grimly content into her now familiar sheets, dragging Solas stubbornly down beside her. She'd woken much later to the touch of his fingertips running along the slight ridges of her vallaslin, the movements light, uncharacteristically hesitant. They'd withdrawn the instant he'd noticed her stirring, sleepy kisses ushering her to sleep once more - but still she remembered and wondered, an aching curiosity lurking within her about the doors to the past that he kept firmly closed.

She couldn't ask, though. She wouldn't. This was a man she trusted, she loved. If he could, he would tell her, in his time. She wouldn’t provoke his demons out of childish curiosity.

So she wove her arms around him, returning his sentiment, pouring her own into him in turn.

They were out of breath when they finally broke apart and they laughed, their foreheads pressed together. Abora rubbed her thumb along Solas' cheek, smiling at the flush that rosied them, knowing that hers glowed the same.

'Ar lath ma', she whispered, a fierceness strengthening the words.

His eyes were fond as they met hers, all traces of sadness hidden once more. ‘Ar lath ma, vhenan. More than you know.’

It was with a quiet sigh that he released his grip around her and drew gently back, the grass underfoot spraying like moist sand. His absence left her briefly cold until he took her hand in his, firm and familiar, tugging lightly for her to follow.

‘Come, vhenan.’ That word, warm and slightly lilting, it always caught her, slipping easily through flesh and skin to flutter behind her ribcage. ‘This dream has long since collapsed. Shall we find another?’

She fell into step beside him and he tucked her arm into his side, the two of them passing further into the depths of the fade-conjured forest, leaving the vestiges of her memory behind.

**Author's Note:**

> Hee hee. I wrote the bulk of this on a plane- thankfully an almost empty one, so there was no one immediately around me to wonder why I kept giggling at myself. I really loved the possibilities that the fade date opened up - Haven was constructed out of a memory, so how thoroughly could other settings and memories be re-accessed? How exactly did Solas spend his SPOILER time in uthenera? So many fun things to explore...!
> 
> (I really just conjured an image of Solas singing the 'I can show you the world' song from Aladdin and laughed myself silly - expect something inspired by that at some point).
> 
> I hate titles. 'Before I sleep' still matches this song beautifully, although when I was writing it I was mainly listening to Alt-J's 'Every Other Freckle' on repeat- ejunkiet's fault, everyone go listen to the [perfect playlist she made for me](http://8tracks.com/ejunkiet/tell-me-another-beautiful-lie).


End file.
